Montague celebrated the growth of its annual girls holiday Mat Cat Classic Friday, welcoming a record 259 wrestlers from 58 schools to the gymnasium.
"It was exciting to see so many West Michigan Conference teams
representing girls wrestling today, as well as the county teams
represented," Montague coach Kris Maddox said. "Hopefully they see how big girls wrestling really is
and continue to support and grow those programs."
It wasn't just Montague representing the area, either, as Whitehall sent two wrestlers - Kassie Sapp and Miley Manzo - to the tournament. Both placed highly, with Sapp earning the championship at 115 pounds with three pin victories. Manzo finished third at 110, scoring a pin and two major decisions in her 3-1 day.
The Wildcats had two of their three wrestlers - Ava Pelton and Taylor Moore - reach the finals. Pelton and Moore combined to score pins in all five of their matches leading up to the championship bouts and took second place at 145 and 235 pounds respectively.
"Ava wrestled the No. 1 ranked wrestler in the state and Taylor wrestled a senior multiple
all-state wrestler," Montague coach Kris Maddox said. "Each girl wrestled well...Taylor showed some great stuff in the championship match and we hope she
continues to wrestle and practice with that same aggressive mentality."
Zaniya Meza finished sixth at 105 with a 3-2 record, earning pins in all three of her victories.
